§ Claire WardTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills when he plans to extend the Sure Start scheme to Watford constituency. [162907]
§ Margaret HodgeThere are a range of Sure Start services in Watford, including a children's centre, attached to Westfield School. Holywell is providing Sure Start services for around 590 children and their families. Since 1998, we have guaranteed free early education for all 4-year-olds and this guarantee has been extended to all 3-year-olds from April 2004. In Hertfordshire this represents an additional funding of over £60 million for 2004–05.
Since 1999, Hertfordshire have also been given over £6.1 million of funding to provide additional child care places and figures received from the authority shows that by March 2003 additional 11,067 childcare places were created.